A user environment, such as a residence or an office building for example, may be configured using various types of load control systems. A lighting control system may be used to control the lighting loads in the user environment. A motorized window treatment control system may be used to control the natural light provided to the user environment. A heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system may be used to control the temperature in the user environment. Each load control system may include various control devices, including control-source devices and control-target devices. The control-target devices may receive digital messages, which may include load control instructions, for controlling an electrical load from one or more of the control-source devices. The control-target devices may be capable of directly controlling an electrical load. The control-source devices may be capable of indirectly controlling the electrical load via the control-target device. Examples of control-target devices may include lighting control devices (e.g., a dimmer switch, an electronic switch, a ballast, or a light-emitting diode (LED) driver), a motorized window treatment, a temperature control device (e.g., a thermostat), an AC plug-in load control device, and/or the like. Examples of control-source devices may include remote control devices, occupancy sensors, daylight sensors, temperature sensors, and/or the like.
Each of the load control systems may allow for the selection of a preset configuration (e.g., a “preset” or “scene”). A preset may be a predefined setting that may be defined at the time of commissioning of the load control system. For example, a lighting control system may set a plurality of lighting loads to different preset intensities in response to the selection of a lighting preset. A preset may be selected in response to an actuation of a button on a control-source device. For example, the control-source may transmit separate digital messages including commands to each of the control-target devices included in the preset, such that the control-target devices are able to adjust the controlled lighting loads in response to the selected preset. If there are a large number of control-target devices included in the selected preset, however, the control-source device may require a large amount of time to transmit the digital messages to the control-target devices. This may result in a noticeable delay between when the first lighting load is adjusted and the last lighting load is adjusted. This visually-piecemeal adjustment of the lighting loads (which may be referred to as, for example, “popcorning”) is undesirable.
Accordingly, some lighting control systems have been configured such that the control-source devices may transmit a single digital message in response to the selection of a preset. The single digital message may include an indication of the selected preset. The control-target devices may each store a preconfigured database including configuration information detailing how the respective control-target device should respond to each identified preset to which the control-target device is responsive. Accordingly, after receiving the single digital message including the selected preset, each control-target device is able to appropriately control the respective lighting load in response to the selected preset. An example of such a lighting control system is described in greater detail in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,803,728, issued Oct. 12, 2004, entitled SYSTEM FOR CONTROL OF DEVICES, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
However, as the size of the lighting control system enlarges (e.g., as the number of control-source and control-target devices in the load control system increases), the amount of time to transmit the databases to each of the control-target devices during commissioning of the load control system also enlarges. In fact, the amount of time to transmit the databases to each of the control-target devices during commissioning of the load control system may increase to an undesirably long time.